Small business ignored

So Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Australian union movement are saying “Buy Australian to save Aussie jobs” (“Gillard to defend manufacturing scheme”, AFR, February 18). What hypocrisy.

The GST should be on all online purchasing, for a start, if Gillard is sincere (and, yes, I am an all-Aussie employing importer threatened by non-GST online purchasing).

The shame of today’s modern Labor politicians (and union leaders) is that so many like Gillard are actually enemies of “working families”.

The reality is that a significant proportion of adult Australians have a disposable income of $25,000 or less a year. And 75 per cent of working Australians are employed by very small to medium-sized family-owned private businesses.

Gillard and the union movement cannot seriously believe both men and women should have the right to demand part-time work from their employers after babies have arrived? The costs, distraction, disruption and sheer “I just don’t need this” effects on private employers of all sizes (especially family businesses) will simply drive the inexorable replacement of (and relief from) Labor.